ISLANDERS STUMBLE AGAINST BRONCS AT RICE INVITE

Houston - The
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's tennis team was dealt a blow
today as they fell to Texas-Pan American in the Hampton Inn
Galleria Rice Invite, hosted by the Rice University Owls.

The Islanders
fall to 5-7 on the season while UTPA improves to 4-10 on the
year.

The Islanders
started out the match by winning the doubles point by a 2-1
margin. In No. 1 doubles
Aswin Vijayaragavan and Brett Bernstein defeated Mikhail Pavlov and
Dmitry Novikov by an 8-6 score. No. 2 doubles saw Laurent Montoisy and
Jose Zunino take down Nirvick Mohinta and Beau Bernstein by a 9-7
final. The deciding match
had David Pace and Alex Pavlov beating Andrew Irving and Marcus
Dornauf by an 8-4 score to take the doubles point and go up
1-0.

The Islanders
were without the services of the regular No. 5 and No. 6 singles
players for violation of unspecified team rules.

"Unfortunately
we had to suspend several players," said Director of Tennis Steve
Moore. "I'm extremely disappointed with the choices we made both
before and during this match.

"It is
important for these young men to understand the standards of being
on one of the elite Division 1 programs in the nation," said
Moore. "I am confident they will learn from this and make better
choices in the future."

Although UTPA
is a Southland Conference team, this match was a non-conference
meeting between the two teams. It is the Islanders first loss on the
court to an SLC opponent since Moore's return in 2006. Earlier this season, the Islanders
defeated UTPA 6-1 in their regularly scheduled SLC meeting. TAMUCC remains undefeated at 1-0
in SLC action.

"Give credit to
UTPA," said Moore. "They made good choices and competed harder than
we did."

The Islanders
are next in action against DePaul on March 25 in San Antonio.